weanswer@SkiPost.com

It's All About the Kids

Today's youth are inspirational. For them, every day is a new adventure filled with opportunities to explore, be creative, and most importantly have fun. As part of the Maine Winter Sports Center in Aroostook County, Maine I have been privileged to be inspired nearly every day this winter by these amazing kids.

Exploration is an essential part of a child's day to day activities. In skiing, exploring allows people to learn their limits, learn what they can do well and what they need to improve. Our youth programs have kids exploring everyday; whether it is figuring out how to hit a jump or how to ski on snowshoe trails this exploration has allowed them to improve both their balance and coordination.

Creativity is key. Follow the Leader, Sharks and Minnows, hundreds of versions of tag games all help keep the attention of youth during outings. These games are always fun, and if changed up from time to time, never seem to get old. Kids are always giving new ideas to change the rules to make the game more challenging or more fun. This creative side keeps everyone's attention, and makes the time having fun seem to fly by.

Everything comes down to having fun, because if it isn't fun, what is the point of doing it. A child who is having fun on skis is improving their skills every time. In Aroostook County, we always celebrate how much fun it is to be on skis during our annual Aroostook Youth Ski Festival. From radar runs and a terrain park to barrel races and tag games, the Aroostook Youth Ski Festival celebrated what winter offers to our youth.

Spending so much time with youth this winter has inspired me to put more exploration, creativity, and fun into my everyday life. It is important for everyone to do this, whether you are a kid or not. After all, we are all kids at heart.

Michael Lessard

Maine Winter Sports Center-Athlete

Transition or Recovery Phase (Spring)

 
Recover from the physical, mental and emotional stresses of training and racing. Complete rest is fine, but active rest is better.

Preparation: Begin building into your modes of training.

More details at http://www.skipost.com/training.htm

Athlete Self Analysis  

Place a check in the box on the right

that best agrees with the statement on the left.

Checks moving from upper left to lower right indicate strength in Endurance and a weakness in speed. Checks moving from upper right to lower left indicate strength in speed and a weakness in endurance. Checks pushed right in the middle of the graph indicate a high-end fitness weakness, such as low Vo2, lactate threshold and/or poor economy. Only testing at a qualified lab can determine where your physiological weakness in this zone lies.

You can gain some beneficial information from analyzing your performances in your five best and five worst races. See if you can find trends that might help indicate your strengths, weaknesses (area's of greatest opportunity) with regard to fitness, strategy, diet and your race and pre-race habits. Things to consider are the race distance, technique, individual or mass start, snow and weather conditions (cold/warm, soft/hard tracks), course type (hilly, flat, steep, gradual), strategy (start hard/easy, attack the hills or ski an even tempo), nutrition (general, morning of, day before), other (travel, sleep, emotional state, race size�)

from http://www.skipost.com/training.htm 

Spring Series

Read about the end of the season Spring Series action from Sun Valley, ID

http://nccsef.org/news/?p=1845 

Peter Vordenberg Images

Do you like helping people glide through winter?

Are you Fast?

Do you love Salomon product?

 Apply for the Salomon US Nordic Athlete Force Here!

SkiTrax 

Don't miss the FINAL issue of the season - SkiTrax Spring 2011 - with complete OSLO 2011 coverage, World Cup FIS XC Wrap, Masters WCup 2011 Report, Junior Olympics, Biathlon Worlds, Gear 2012 and much more... 

SkiPost-SkiTrax Special Offer !!
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 SkiPost and SkiTrax Magazine, the largest cross-country ski magazine in North America, have teamed up to bring you great savings. SkiTrax keeps you up to date on all the latest Nordic news, Canadian, US and International race reports, ski gear, adventure and recreational skiing and much more - in the mag and on line - 

Save 30% off regular subscription prices today and add more kick and more glide this season. Try a SkiTrax-Pedal Combo with 15% more savings and get Pedal Magazine, Canada's leading cycling magazine, as well - to order click here  www.SkiTrax.com 

Factory Team Skis for Sale

We have a few pair of classical skis

201 and 206 cm for skiers 150-210 lbs

left over from the Saab Salomon Factory Team 

Drop an email to weanswer@SkiPost.com